Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Cyber Security Awareness Tip of the Day: October 7

In a recent discussion at Freedomlist, a member was seeking help for a friend who could not remember the Windows password used when originally setting up the computer. Although there was plenty of advice on how to go about retrieving that password, the Tip of the Day from Digger may be a surprise.

Tip of the Day, October 7
"On WinXP and higher, a blank password is more secure (in some ways) than an easily guessable password because Windows will automatically disable remote access to accounts with blank passwords."

Microsoft Security at Home explains that criminals can easily guess a simple password such as "1234", "password", "abcd" and further specifies:

"You can choose to use a blank password on your computer account if these criteria are met:

  • You only have one computer or you have several computers but you do not need to access information on one computer from another one
  • The computer is physically secure (you trust everyone who has physical access to the computer)

The use of a blank password is not always a good idea. For example, a laptop computer that you take with you is probably not physically secure, so on those you should have a strong password."










Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...

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